Special Relativity Course at World Science University by Brian Greene

[Andy_K]

Dear All,

Just wanted to share this excellent free Special Relativity online course I came across by Brian Greene, which I believe is one of the best around. Not sure if it's been shared before here.

Special Relativity — World Science U, by Brian Greene
http://www.worldscienceu.com/courses/university/special-relativity

The lectures are clear and interesting, supplemented with intuitive animations, interactive demonstrations and excellent exercises (each question comes with a video to explain the answer). There's also a final exam, upon which you can obtain a certificate of achievement if you score 75% or more.

Only problem is the interactive demos require a Wolfram CDF plugin, which doesn't work on most browsers anymore due to deprecated plugin technology. I found a temporary workaround for Firefox, where you have to install their ESR version, and the plugin will work (at least until early 2018). You can download it here:
https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/organizations/

Happy learning!

 

[m4r35n357]

I did this one out of curiosity when it first came out. It's a pretty thorough treatment, with plenty of repetitious reinforcement to bang the points home. He has put a lot of work into the presentations, problems and supplementary material. I know Brian Greene comes in for a lot of stick about his pop-sci interludes, but this is not one of those.

 

[Andy_K]

Yup, can see that he really put in a lot of effort, especially with the detailed animations and video explanations for every single question (I believe there are at least 100 - 200 of them!). He did an amazing job with World Science U. I would be willing to pay for such a good course.

Have you tried the Master courses on World Science U by other lecturers, are they good? I briefly checked out the Loop Quantum Gravity course there but it just seemed like a normal video lecture with no interactive demos or questions.

Would be great if you can share some recommendations on other good online courses, especially for relativity and quantum physics.

I certainly hope he'll release a course for General Relativity soon!

I did this one out of curiosity when it first came out. It's a pretty thorough treatment, with plenty of repetitious reinforcement to bang the points home. He has put a lot of work into the presentations, problems and supplementary material. I know Brian Greene comes in for a lot of stick about his pop-sci interludes, but this is not one of those.

 

[duSci]

Who founded the "world science university"? Anyone to introduce please?

 

[Andy_K]

World Science U was founded by Brian Greene, who taught the excellent Special Relativity course above. He also founded the World Science Festival.

Who founded the "world science university"? Anyone to introduce please?